Wanted
by ManofManyHats
Summary: After finding a certain poster, Sokka tries to learn something new about Zuko. Instead, Sokka learns that he did not judge Zuko's boundaries as well as he'd hoped. And he learns this by crossing aforementioned boundaries.
1. Chapter 1

"Meat. That's what you're forgetting. More meat."

Katara sighed at her brother's immaturity. "We bought plenty, Sokka. More than we need really."

"You can never have enough meat. Come on Katara, we were eating water-and-leftover soup the entire time at the Western Air Temple. I've staved off meat for pretty long, I think I should have a little reward. Right Suki?"

The warrior in question rolled her eyes. "You know we were there with you too, right? And we aren't complaining. And don't say our real names. We're in the middle of a Fire Nation city here."

"Yeah, yeah, it just slipped out, ok? Besides this place seems pretty laid back."

"You still have to be on the lookout."

"Speaking of looking…" Sokka veered away from their path back to the beach house, steering towards a plain wooden board on the edge of town. "What do we have here?"

The girls followed behind him. Katara studied the papers nailed on the board. "Wanted posters? What's this about _Wang Fire?_ "

He pointed proudly at one of the more fresh looking papers. "Look at this handsome fellow right here."

"What are you so happy about? You're officially a wanted criminal." Katara crossed her arms. She had better things to do than this.

"Yeah, I mean it raises your chances of getting caught by a whole lot." Suki said, voice lowered.

Sokka was not dissuaded. "It's my first wanted poster! I mean the most I got before was a little mention in Aang's poster, and Katara had one since she's a waterbender and ' _an apparent threat to Fire Nation establishments'_. They've finally realized that _I_ am a danger to the Fire Nation!"

Suki looked at him quizzically. "Umm… congratulations?"

"Names remember, Wang," Katara told him.

"Hey look you've got one too! And dad! These are from the prison break!"

Suki looked at her little portrait, in profile, with Hakoda and Chit Sang's close by. "Great."

He scanned the board a little longer. "Hey, look we've all got one. Toph's got the _Runaway_ poster and look! There's Appa! Too bad there's no Momo."

Katara glanced at the board, annoyed this was taking so long, when something caught her eye. She pointed at a slightly worn poster, glad to have a little leverage. "You finally got a poster and I've had two for a while now."

Sokka looked at the paper. "Unfair." He announced glumly.

"You were the Painted Lady? How did that happen?"

"I'll tell you about it later, once we can finally go home."

"Hey, you might have more than me but Aang is the real heavyweight here. He's got like three, at least." Sokka shuffled through the pictures. "Yeah, three. One of his face, the one with Appa and I think he's meant to be in the Avatar state in this one."

"He's the Avatar, of course he'd have the most." Katara retorted.

Suki leafed at another section, finding papers underneath newer ones. "Actually, I think Zuko might win this time."

"Huh, I thought I only saw one." Sokka inched closer to her.

She lifted the newest picture up, a profile view of him, probably put up after the prison break. "Look underneath, there's…three… no, four. Wow."

Sokka, considered the papers, the oldest one worn and creased, barely legible, probably spared only because the second poster had covered it.

"One for the prison break, _yeesh_ , wanted dead or alive. Another, I think this announces his traitorhood or something. This one was back when he had that ponytail, and his uncle's in it too. Traitors, enemy of the nation, yada yada yada. And this."

Sokka took the last poster off the board with barely a tug. He held it close to his face, trying to decipher the writing.

"Wow, four posters. Wonder why though." Suki pondered. His dad must have hated him more than she thought.

"Actually, maybe five," Katara laid a hand on another picture, a depiction of a crudely grinning mask, "Aang told me Zuko wore a blue mask when he rescued him from Pohuai Stronghold."

Suki looked at the poster. " _The Blue Spirit,_ guess that's another story for later."

Katara nodded.

"Ok, ok, guys listen to this. _Crown Prince Zuko, firstborn of Firelord Ozai, -_ this part's pretty smudged - _sentenced to exile…terms to return…capture -_ this part's all gone - _if seen on Fire Nation territory, report to authorities…lethal action permitted._ And look, 97 A.G., three years ago. I guess this was when he got banished."

Katara looked at the paper, studying it further. "He doesn't have his scar in that picture. Do you think that had anything to do with it?"

Sokka shrugged. "Maybe. But it could still be a training accident, it could have happened during his exile. What I'm wondering is what he did that was so bad the _Fire Nation_ wanted him gone. I mean he's like 13 in this, what could a 13 year old do that could get him exiled?"

"I mean Aang's 12 and he's done some pretty big things." Katara countered.

Sokka carefully folded the paper away. "Maybe. But I'm gonna ask him about it later."

"It might be a touchy subject."

"Hey, he asked me about mom, I get to ask him this."

Katara sighed. "Whatever, can we please just go home?"

* * *

"So, Zuko," Sokka scooted over closer to his seat on the porch, "Care to enlighten me on this?"

He held the wanted poster, close to his face, waiting for an answer. Zuko squinted at the paper, annoyed that Sokka was on his case during his break from training. He sighed.

"Upside-down, Sokka."

"Oh, uh," he turned the parchment right side up, but a little too quick, "Care to enlighten me?" The paper fell apart. Zuko groaned.

"What do you want?" Sokka blinked at the rags on the floor and tried to salvage his little interrogation. He cleared his voice and tried for his best in-control voice.

"So, as you know Suki, Katara and I were at the market this morning. But what you might not realize is that we tread upon some interesting information today."

"Get to the point."

"Yes, so, we came across a little poster concerning you. And your banishment."

"What do you want from me?" Zuko wasn't liking where this was going.

"And well, the punishment seemed pretty harsh, so I wondered what a 13 year old _prince_ could have done to deserve that."

 _Don't make me go into this._ Zuko scowled deeper. "Well, you can keep wondering."

Sokka was prepared for his reluctance. "Oh, okay. Mind if I bounce some ideas off you?"

"Yes, I do-"

"Okay, so a prince, who could banish a prince? Aha, clue number one; the only one I can think of is the Firelord. And I know the Loserlord hated you or something, but he couldn't just throw you out without a reason right?"

"I hope you're not expecting an answer."

"Maybe you embarrassed him? At some fancy party? Did something so stupid you got thrown out of the kingdom?"

"You better not be serious." Zuko wanted nothing more than to drop the subject, but Sokka refused to let up.

"No? Okay, maybe you tried to be the good guy and tried to assassinate someone? Or maybe you were being the bad guy and tried to assassinate someone? You didn't kill anyone right?"

"No." He hissed.

"Huh, I thought you weren't gonna answer me?"

"I don't need you guys thinking I'm a murderer!"

"Okay, okay, what else. Okay, maybe you lost a battle or something. Wait you were 13, no, probably not. Ugh… maybe back to that embarrassment thing. Maybe went out after curfew. Maybe you got in a fist fight or something or messed up some princely etiquette. Maybe you knocked some innocent girl up and lost your honor or something."

Zuko was taken aback. "I was 13!"

He shrugged. "Still could happen. " He stretched out his back and made it look like he was about to get up. "Anyway, I'm gonna go throw around these ideas with the others."

"What! Sokka!"

"Well, you know, two minds are better than one."

"Sokka! No!" Zuko buried his head in his hands, in embarrassment and defeat. Sokka could be pretty insensitive sometimes but Zuko couldn't blame him; Sokka would probably back off if Zuko showed any signs of distress, and his temper covered up his racing heartbeat.

"I'm walking away, Zuko. I thought you wanted to be left alone?"

If anything, Sokka was a strategist. He knew he'd trapped Zuko, closing his escape with the likelihood of embarrassment and further questioning. It would be much easier to spill the beans; or so he thought.

Zuko was cornered. If his emotions weren't intruding he'd probably choose for Sokka to leave, even if he discussed his _ideas_ with the others but he was emotionally strained, with the memories at the forefront of his mind. And if he didn't say something now the conversation might repeat again later.

"Get back here, Sokka."

Sokka sat back down in triumph. "Well, I thought you'd never give in."

"Well, I don't need the others thinking I'm a murderer or a rapist!" Zuko scrawled through his mind, trying to find a way he could express his banishment without having an emotional collapse.

Zuko turned to look at the ground and said through gritted teeth.

"I spoke out when I shouldn't have and wouldn't fight when I was told." With that the dam broke. He knew, he'd said it. But what Zuko had labeled as a great leap away from his comfort zone, Sokka saw differently.

Sokka waited. "That's it? Come on there's gotta be more!"

"That's all you need to know."

This time Sokka heard the tremble in his voice. "Oh, yeah." He saw Zuko explicitly turn his head away from him. His breaths seemed deeper than usual. "Spirits, Zuko. I shouldn't have asked, I'm- I'm sorry."

Zuko's voice came muffled. "It wasn't your fault."

Sokka decided that was a cue to leave. He had horrible misjudged where the line had been drawn.

He slowly ascended the stairs to the house. Katara cast a glance at Sokka's glum face, then at Zuko's hunched form.

She met Sokka's eyes with a question. He glanced upwards but wouldn't meet her eyes.

"It was a touchy subject."

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Fin. That was set somewhere before Ember Island Players, but you probably figured that out, you smart reader, you. I feel like the end's a bit too abrupt, but this was just a quick one-shot, not rated for perfection. I should probably be doing other things, but if I write one thing for to long, I've got to take little creative breaks; like this. Anyway, thanks for reading, hats off to you, kind sir or madam. Or enlightened canine**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Two years after calling it complete, I summoned this story from the deep abyss and mustered up a sequel. I was in the mood and you asked for it. It was damn depressing, but hey, I had fun. That's all we can ask for, right? It was pretty interesting to see how much my writing has changed over time. Anyway, hope you like it.**

* * *

If they'd had been any other two people, the matter would have been patched up sometime later that day. But they weren't. They were two teenage boys who saw the ability to tune out emotions as imperative to manhood.

So in the ever continuing battle to out 'pretend that nothing has happened' each other, Sokka had them see an Ember Island original, _The Boy in the Iceberg._ Everyone left emotionally disturbed.

It's that night when Aang confronted it, on the softer end of the issue. "I think you should go talk to him."

"Talk to who? About what? There's nothing going on." Sokka's nervousness shone through his teeth.

"To Zuko. He's been a little… stand-offish today. I don't think the play helped."

He gives a laugh which is a little bit too high pitched. "It's Zuko; he's always like that."

"I don't think so. He canceled _training_ tomorrow, and I figured he'd have to be dead on his feet before he _ever_ canceled training."

"Pssh, the guy just needs a break. What's the big deal?"

"But it's _Zuko._ " The guy would run himself into the dirt way before he'd ever admit he needed a break. "C'mon Sokka, we all know about the _falling out_ you two had before."

"What! What are you…? Wah…" For such a chippy kid, the airbender had a great deadpan face. Sokka threw his hands up in the air. "It wasn't my fault, okay! I didn't think it was a big deal!"

His nervous heartbeat roared. The idea of confrontation made him anxious, but the idea of Zuko in general made him even more tense. Worse, he felt guilty. He'd made the guy cry and then took him to a play where he watched himself get killed; that wasn't exactly what good friends do. It'd been nice to have a friend his age, and he was terrified that he'd destroyed it all with his big, fat, murder-accusing mouth.

"Whatever happened between you two wasn't anybody's fault, but it isn't going to be solved by ignoring each other." Aang seemed to be able to see right through him. "Sokka, when we go to fight the Firelord we need to be able to be there for each other. That means getting rid of any unnecessary drama." He winced inwardly. "More than there already is."

Sokka never liked unnecessary baggage within the team, like when Toph and Katara fought, or when Katara still held a grudge against Zuko. It slowed them down and usually caught him in the crossfire. Curse the kid for playing into his logical side.

"Ugh. Why do you have to make so much sense?" Between the Avatar status and the wisdom of a lost, 100 year old culture, Aang was wound up like a moral compass. It got a little annoying at times. "But even if I _wanted_ to talk to him, he's probably asleep by now."

"Actually, he's outside burning old pictures." Aang added helpfully.

"He's… um, _why_?" He was more curious than confused by the idea. Setting fire to family memorabilia just seemed like a Zuko thing to do.

"Dunno. You go out there and ask him for me, I'm going to bed." The airbender said with a cheery smile.

He skipped off down the hall, firebending out the candles as he went, leaving Sokka with the mission of having a heart-to-heart with their little pyro prince. In the dark. Well, there goes putting it off till morning.

Sokka stumbled around blindly towards the door, trying to follow a light in the window that might've been Zuko's portrait pyre. He managed to stub his toe on something on the way. It's an old picture frame, he can't make out the portrait but if Zuko was burning old photos, he wouldn't mind giving toe-stabber as an offering.

Reaching the firelight, Sokka started off with a thoughtful, soul-opening, "Hey."

"Hey."

He wasn't sure if Zuko was surprised to see him. The two hadn't spoken to each other since that evening two days ago, Sokka even skipping dinner once to avoid the confrontation. That alone must have set off alarm bells.

Sokka rocked on the balls of his feet, trying to think of something to say. He liked to pride himself as the smooth-talking idea man of the group but in situations like this, he was as conversational as a dead spider-mouse. "So... couldn't sleep either?"

Zuko gave a wry laugh. "I didn't even try."

"Yeah." Black bags hung under his eyes and Sokka couldn't help but feel guilty. Seeing yourself burn on stage would probably keep _him_ up at night, too. "That was… a bad play."

"It was a good reminder. I've spent so long worried about everything I did wrong in the past, when it's really the future I should be more worried about."

Zuko sighed, the fire dipping down to a glow so Sokka could make out the half charred portraits it used as fuel. He saw Ozai scorched black, a younger but still sinister Azula, and a woman who might've been Zuko's mother. In Sokka's own hands was the portrait he'd found in the dark, a painting of the Firelord standing with his hand on his firstborn son's shoulder. He looked across to the firebender and tried to convince himself that the scarless, smiling kid in the portrait was the same person.

The thought made a knot in his stomach. It was easier to pretend that Zuko had always been like he was, scarred and aloof and quick to temper, than to try and comprehend that he'd once been the innocent kid in that picture.

The fire rose up again. Sokka crumpled to the ground and sat beside it.

"Look, Zuko, I'm really sorry about before. I shouldn't have tried to dig up the past when I knew you didn't want me to, and I _really_ shouldn't have accused you of being all those things. I just didn't know it would make you so..." He bit off the sentence; there was no need to make excuses. He tried for a deprecating laugh. "I'm more curious than what's good for me."

He turned to face Zuko, hoping at best for a look of forgiveness and at worst an unreadable stare at the fire. Sokka didn't expect forgiveness that quickly, but Zuko had never been one to hold a grudge. He got neither.

Zuko's eyes were wide, shining with a playful, crazed light. "Are you still curious?"

The question washed away any relief Sokka had felt from his confession.

"What do you mean?" The outright answer was yes, he was still curious, no matter how insensitive he knew it was. He'd made his friend breakdown in broad daylight and he still had the nerve to wonder what he didn't tell him.

 _I spoke up when I shouldn't have and wouldn't fight when I was told._ He couldn't help but try to decipher what that meant and he'd be lying if he said the prospect of hearing the answer didn't excite him.

"The past is in the past." Zuko continued, tone somber. "I overreacted. Besides, after all you guys have done for me, you deserve to hear the story. From me."

His eyes kept glinting mischievously, as if reassuring him that nothing was awry. But then he saw how the fire glowed yellow and lashed out in scared, haphazard angles. He saw how Zuko's shoulders drooped under some unknown weight, and Sokka knew that behind that gaze, Zuko was terrified.

He remembered the tremble in Zuko's voice two days ago, a tremble that hadn't been there when he faced the Avatar or when he was captured at the Boiling Rock or when he'd faced Azula alone on top an airship, a thousand feet from the ground.

"Zuko, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

It felt reckless, like they were about to cross a chasm on a rope bridge that might not take their weight. The firebender was too headstrong to be dissuaded. He gave only a moment of pause, before he walked off onto the bridge.

"We can't change the past." Zuko held a hand up to his scar, talking more to himself than anything, and Sokka's curiosity was beginning to churn into a pit in his stomach. "And besides, it's just a story."

Sokka hated the irony of that idea. Maybe told around a campfire it was just a story, but this was Zuko's life, his memory. Zuko knew that of course, but perhaps calling it a story was a small comfort.

" _I spoke up when I shouldn't have and wouldn't fight when I was told._ " He quoted. "That really is what happened, without all the cause and effect. And you were right about one thing: it was the Firelord."

The fire had gone back to a warm orange and Zuko's gaze began to grow far away. He didn't seem to know where to begin. "I was 13. It wasn't exactly the best time in my life. I was never the best firebender, never enough for Ozai at least, and after my mother… disappeared… things didn't get any better."

"But we already knew all that." Sokka tried to keep the mood light, but the humor sounded dry in his ears.

"Right. So by then, I was getting more and more reckless to try and prove myself."

Sokka understood that. Being the son of leader was a source of great pride for him, but it also meant that he spent a good portion of his life trying to escape his father's shadow. It was especially tolling when you had a miracle sister around, something that the two boys shared. Except, when Sokka had tried to prove himself to _his_ father, Hakoda had given him a pat on the back and told him he had _already_ proven himself. Looking at where Zuko was, that likely was not how his father had reacted.

"That day, I went into a war meeting that I shouldn't have been in and that I definitely shouldn't have been saying anything in. But I was 13, and I could never have imagined…"

Zuko's eyes were lost somewhere long in the past.

A private war meeting. The Firelord. Speaking up. Things started to click into place.

"So you spoke up when you shouldn't have." Sokka tried to coax him back, quoting the words he had said earlier.

"Against a general." Zuko swallowed hard, his sentences coming out shorter and leaving him out of breath. "He had this horrible plan… to sacrifice an entire division of new recruits. I was so sure I was in the right, that I would… impress him by calling out something so wrong, but…" Zuko just shook his head. "The Firelord said speaking up was an act of disrespect. The only way to resolve it was an Agni Kai."

"That wouldn't be Fire Nation jargon for 'talk it over', would it?"

Zuko smiled without humor. "Fire duel."

Sokka's mouth went dry. "That works, too."

"Even when he said it, I wasn't afraid. I was 13 and I was naive and…" Up till then, Sokka had been picking up on untold cues to try and wrap his head around what was being said: how Zuko kept repeating he was 13, or the fact that he'd never once called Ozai 'father'. Now he didn't need to, because Zuko's neck was bent low and a tremble was growing in his voice. "I thought… I thought I was fighting the general."

His words from earlier echoed in Sokka's ears. _You were right about one thing..._

Suddenly, the rope bridge they were crossing snapped, and Sokka threw himself onto the other side of the chasm, _hard._ The energy was knocked out of him. Any thoughts of humor or keeping things light spiralled into the abyss.

"Why would he… _why_?"

"I'd spoken out in _his_ war room, against _his_ general. He was the one I had gone against."

" _No_ , that's not what I meant. Why would your own _father_ challange you in the first place?" Sokka looked back at the portrait in his hands and images flashed in his eyes, of the hand that lay so innocently on his son's shoulder rising up, covering the boy's face and then… "Nevermind. There's _nothing_ to understand about that."

Zuko sat there, shoulders hunched, the orange glow of the fire cast over him, as if he hadn't heard a word he'd said.

"I didn't fight back."

Sokka wished he'd told it to someone else, someone who could actually be of some comfort. To Katara who always knew how to traverse the maze that was emotion, to Aang who understood sacrifice and about leaving the past to the past, even Toph who would've sat there and given him some semblance of strength as he went on. Instead he came to him, the guy who'd prodded the story out of him and couldn't do anything but stare at the fire when he was done. He caught sight of a face in the flames and it was all he could do not to retch.

Any facade of storytelling had crumbled away.

"I woke up on my ship a few days after. My uncle told me that I'd been banished and the only way I could come home is if I captured the Avatar." He sighed. "He never really wanted me to come back, but I think you know that I took that chance to heart."

Zuko smiled as if making a quip at his old Avatar chasing days, but knowing that it was his desperate want to go home that had lit a fire under his feet made the idea less than comical.

Sokka shook his head, too tired to feel anything but disgust, and a deep, deep sadness. "No offense, Zuko, but… why did you even want to go back?"

His smile stayed, but it shared the same sorrow. "It was home… it was all I ever knew. I thought if I just kept trying harder… maybe it would want me back, too."

Silence followed, but the descript beach house and the paintings burning in front of them felt too loud an answer.

Sokka caught a glance of Ozai's burning eyes in the pyre. _The past is in the past._ He was beginning to understand why Zuko wanted to burn that history. Perhaps it wasn't the healthiest way to express it, but it was Zuko's way, and Sokka wasn't about to stop him.

He dug into his pockets, searching for something.

"Here, I found these." Passed across the fire were the wanted posters and the portrait Sokka had found. "Do what you want with them."

Zuko stared at the first sheet, the one from three years ago that had ripped in half. He smiled again, the sadness still there but not as raw. It was the sorrow of someone who had suffered, but could now look back from a better place.

"This was the best thing he could've done for me. It got me away from him." He laid the paper at his side, as if he planned on keeping it. "It's a little ironic that it took this many wanted posters before I finally realized that my father _never_ wanted me."

"You've got a thick skull." Sokka joked. "But Ozai's got one worse if he never wanted you."

"Oh, he wants me. Dead or alive."

Sokka laughed, despair giving way to a new, unwithheld respect. An honor, you might say. "I think I speak for all of us when I say you're wanted _here_ , Zuko, very much alive."

A lost look came over Zuko's eyes before turning into silent thanks. Sokka guessed that he hadn't heard that much of his life. Zuko reached the final item in his hand: the portrait of him and his father. He stared, eyes unreadable.

"Looks like I missed one." Is all he said before the frame turned to cinder in his hands.

That was about as healthy an expression of emotions as he was ever going to get.


End file.
